


Risk and Reward

by Pride_of_Six



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Pining Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 16:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11490234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pride_of_Six/pseuds/Pride_of_Six
Summary: Arthur felt the urge to crowd Merlin again, and he did. Right against the side of the bed, but he left just enough of an opening that it wasn’t threatening. It worked that either Merlin would be pushed back onto the bed after Arthur finished what he had to say, or Merlin would walk out of the room and never look at him the same again.





	Risk and Reward

**Author's Note:**

> This is in a world where nothing bad happened I reckon. Arthur's king, Morgana's good, Lancelot's alive.

It was all in good fun, Arthur assured himself. It was all in good fun that Merlin was dancing around the pub half-naked. It was all in good fun that Gwaine, the bastard, was joining in on said dancing. And, of course, it was all in good fun that Arthur, being the King of Camelot, could not socially justify marching over to Merlin, grabbing him away from all the prying eyes, and taking him back to his quarters so he could make sweet love to him. It was all in good fun.

Except at the same time, it really wasn’t. Arthur was practically vibrating he was fuming so much. It was ridiculous that the calibre of people at the pub were even amused by the display of his manservant parading around, but apparently Arthur’s worst nightmares had become a reality and he wasn’t the only one taking notice of Merlin’s ethereal beauty any more.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the only people left at the table beside of him were couples. Gwen and Lancelot, Morgana and Leon, Percival and… well, Percival was kind-of-sort-of with Gwaine, anyway, so he was inconsequential. It felt like sometimes everyone in the seven kingdoms had a spouse or a partner or at least a sex life, and then there was Arthur. He had nothing but an intense desire for his manservant, and an intense inability to actually fulfil said desire.

What he did have, though, was enough authority that he could bring an end to the evening for him and Merlin at any moment if he truly wanted to. It was, if nothing else, a good failsafe if things really got out of hand. Like if Merlin decided to set his eyes on one of the brutes clapping and egging him on. That would definitely constitute things getting completely out of hand.

But he wasn’t the kind of ‘entitled prat’, as Merlin would put it, that he was when they first met. He wasn’t going to put a stop to his servant’s joviality just to satisfy his own, foolish urges. And really, it was all good fun to watch Merlin having as much fun as he was having. The man looked haunted so often that Arthur had almost forgotten just what he looked like when he smiled that beautiful smile of his.

Regretfully, Arthur turned his eyes away from the dancefloor and looked dejectedly down at his full goblet of wine. He usually would save his brooding and general lamenting regarding Merlin for when he was alone in his quarters, but tonight, seeing the other man so blatantly putting him out there for people other than Arthur, he couldn’t resist the wave of gloom that hit him.

He could envision how perfectly it could work in his mind. How he and Merlin could make their unorthodox relationship work if they took it a step further. It’d have to stay under wraps at first. Perhaps that could cause some tensions, but Arthur would make it up to Merlin. God, how he’d make it up to him every moment that he had to keep it a secret. Then, once Arthur legalised magic and all the other foolish things that got outlawed by his predecessors, he would expose their relationship to the kingdom and marry his manservant. Naturally, this wasn’t realistic because the repercussions of making even one of his dreams a reality would be enormous. But that’s why these were just dreams.

“Arthur,” Morgana cut through his self-destructive reverie, “I don’t understand why you don’t just tell him.”

To say Arthur was struck dumb by Morgana’s words would be an understatement. He felt like he had been enchanted simple. “Excuse me?” His voice was a harsh whisper, because this was his business, and Morgana had just casually brought up something that she shouldn’t even know about in front of four other people.

“Merlin,” Gwen answers on Morgana’s behalf, and Arthur’s head whips around to stare at his once-spouse with horror. It must have been some kind of conspiracy that all of them were in on. That seemed to be the most reasonable explanation for this sudden spur in the conversation.

“You don’t mean…” Arthur evaded, but was interrupted by Leon, of all people.

“Come on Arthur. Everybody who knows you knows how you feel about him.”

Arthur turned his chin up in dismissiveness. He would deny it until his dying breath. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He feels the same way, you know,” this time it was Percival just casually, quietly dropping a bomb in the conversation.

Arthur’s head whipped around so fast he risked whiplash, and he blurted out “What?” loudly before he could even think to hold it in. So maybe he wasn’t going to deny it until his dying breath after all.

Morgana’s rictus grin was distinctive even just in Arthur’s periphery. “Gotcha,” she teased, “but Percy’s right. It’s a rare and beautiful situation where the two parties love each other privately, but for some weird reason, you aren’t together.” Arthur’s world was being turned on axis after axis, and he was struggling to keep up.

“It’s about time something happened,” Gwen stated, and Arthur looked at each of them in abject horror. At what point did this night go from a complete self-loathing disaster to his closest friends telling him that his love was requited; that Arthur actually stood a chance with Merlin. Surely there was some kind of hallucinogen in the wine, because things like this didn’t just happen out of nowhere.

“What’s going on here? Why aren’t the rest of you joining in on the dancing?” Merlin’s voice jolted Arthur and he, embarrassingly, leapt about a foot in the air.

He turned to Merlin and conveyed as much in his expression as he could as he said, “I think I’ll retire for the night.”

Something must have gotten through, because Merlin nodded and didn’t question his message at all. His servant ran around without hesitation and said his goodbyes to the gang as well as a few strangers that Arthur wasn’t familiar with. He internally bristled when he recognised some of the same hungry looks on the strangers’ faces that he would see on his own face.

The moment they got outside of that frankly bizarre pub and all the weird events that occurred there that night, Arthur wrapped an arm around Merlin’s shoulders and held him close.

“Had a bit too much to drink, Arthur?” Merlin jested, poking at his side in a way that kind of tickled, but Arthur just tightened his arm and brought Merlin closer to him because it felt like the right thing to do. He hadn’t actually had much at all to drink that night, far more interested in watching Merlin’s dancing and ensuring that he didn’t do something stupid.

“Shut up, Merlin,” Arthur retorted, but by this point in their relationship they’d learned to understand that ‘shut up, Merlin’ actually meant ‘thank you’. “Just because you can’t hold your liquor doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Merlin dismissed, stumbling a bit as they struggled to walk up the stairs to the castle while remaining connected. Arthur reluctantly let go, but still hovered just a bit closer in Merlin’s personal space than he normally would. Some dumb part of him was taking the words of his friends in the pub to heart and he was hoping to evoke some kind of reaction from his servant to prove them right.

It took an embarrassingly long time for them to get to Arthur’s chambers because at one point Arthur had physically crowded Merlin so much that his servant had been pushed into a side passage and Arthur, being the idiot he was, had decided to pretend that it was on purpose and that they could just loop around. Close to an hour later, and they had finally crossed the threshold into Arthur’s room.

Merlin was already setting about his usual routine of helping Arthur settle in for the night, but Arthur was still being haunted by the words of his friends. It was now or he’d never get the nerve to say it again. “Merlin?”

“Yes, Arthur?” his servant stopped fluffing up Arthur’s pillows and turned to regard his king.

Arthur felt the urge to crowd Merlin again, and he did. Right against the side of the bed, but he left just enough of an opening that it wasn’t threatening. It worked that either Merlin would be pushed back onto the bed after Arthur finished what he had to say, or Merlin would walk out of the room and never look at him the same again. The risk was worth the reward, though.

Arthur closed the distance between them and gently pecked Merlin on the lips. It was enough that his servant—his friend—would understand what he was offering, but not enough that he was taking something from him.

“Oh,” Merlin uttered dumbly.

 

Four years later, Gaius pronounced them husband and husband, and Arthur gave Merlin a far less gentle, bordering on indecent, kiss to memorialise the occasion.

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest I wrote this on a whim in <2 hours cause I've always liked this pairing. Thanks for reading!


End file.
